What made the UEM Sunrise BSD unique was the fact that this was the first BIM event of its kind by a property developer to feature other industry players in sharing knowledge and experiences in BIM adoption. The event was well-received by UEM Sunrise staff and other developers, consultants, contractors and suppliers, with close to 300 participants in attendance.

The event started with welcoming remarks by UEM Sunrise’s Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib, Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer, followed by a keynote address by Zulkifly Garib, Director – Central 1 of UEM Sunrise in the presence of Zulfa Ashida Zulkifli, Chief People Officer of UEM Sunrise and the Guest of Honour, Rofizlan Ahmad, Chief Executive Officer of CIDB E-Construct Services Sdn Bhd. This was followed by guest speakers from AECOM, RSP Architects, VERITAS Architects, IJM Construction, Sunway Construction, and Chin Hin Group sharing their knowledge and experience on BIM adoption, value-add, lessons learnt, challenges, and the way forward for BIM in the property industry.

The UEM Sunrise BSD was held to re-introduce BIM to UEMS Staff and BIM implementation experiences, successes, and lessons learnt from other industry players. At UEM Sunrise, BIM has been adopted since 2017 and has currently been made mandatory for all its high-rise projects. To date, seven on-going UEM Sunrise projects are adopting BIM in its processes.

The UEM Sunrise BSD achieved its objectives as participants were involved in an energetic Q&A session with all the speakers with many strong opinions, thoughts, and ideas being shared on the advantages of embracing BIM, overcoming the challenges in BIM implementation, tangible cost savings from implementing BIM, and more.

The UEM Sunrise BIM Unit confirmed that with BIM, they have learnt to be more collaborative and open as they believe that the industry should be as open and collaborative as well for the betterment and growth of BIM adoption rates in the industry.

The Government, through the Construction Industry Development Board, have started promoting BIM since 2016 under the Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP) which includes initiatives in educating, providing facilities, introducing a learning syllabus, and mandating requirements for the industry in BIM adoption. It has been reported that by 2021, all city status local authorities will require BIM e-submissions through the National BIM e-Submission (NBeS) platform by its principal submitting person (PSP).

Lai Sook Fun, Head of Product Development at UEM Sunrise, delivered her closing remarks by expressing her appreciation for the collective efforts of all parties in making the UEM Sunrise BSD a success and hoped that everyone learned and took back impactful lessons on BIM, in terms of knowledge and discovery – however big or small – in uplifting the industry through BIM as a platform to promote open and collaborative work practices across all disciplines.